Manic Miner - The Big Bonus Edition


This is a very simple modification of Manic Miner to provide a higher score compared to a standard version. In addition to this, a few small minor (miner?) changes were also made to improve the game a fraction. Care was taken in what changes were made to avoid an insane value being obtainable too.

It should be noted the .zip contains two tape files:

A conventional loading .tap file, suitable for easy transfer to other media if required and a .tzx file which features a Speedlock loader, the latter must be loaded in 48K mode only.


The 'score changes' performed were as follows:

1. Item Collection: Changed to 1,000 points per item from its default of 100.

2. Air Bonus: Changed to 10 from its default of 1 per air unit remaining upon cavern completion.

3. Kong Bonus: Changed to 1,000 from its default of 100 per block the Kong Beast falls.

4. Extra life: Changed to award an extra life at 100,000 points instead of its default of 10,000 points. This was necessary to prevent an excess of extra lives being awarded!


Other changes applied to this release are as follows:

5. The Bank has two extra items defined that are never shown, and hence cannot be collected. These were restored. This also assists in a slightly higher score!

6. Similar to The Bank, The Sixteenth Cavern has one extra item that was never shown, again this was restored.

7. Amoebatron's Revenge features a conveyor but it is both facing the wrong way and using the wrong attributes. This was rectified.

8. Miner Willy faces the wrong way upon entering Ore Refinery, Skylab's Landing Bay and The Warehouse, in that he is facing the wall side of the cavern. These small issues were rectified.

9. A neat new font was added simply to distinguish the game a little bit from standard.

10. The remaining lives animation blocks were moved along one so that they do not butt-up against the border area.

11. The pause code and unused empty 'dead space' was emptied out.

12. It should be borne in mind if any changes are planned this is based on the Software Projects release of the code, rather than Bug-Byte's version. Although very similar, the code is not always in exactly the same place.

13. A new loading screen was added. Design input and helpful advice for this was kindly given by Ian Rushforth.

14. For the slightly curious, the relevant code for 1,2,3 and 4 can be found at:

1: 36749
2: 37061
3: 37349
4: 37113


Finally, we hope you enjoy the small change to the otherwise standard Manic Miner game. Part of the reasoning for using the Software Projects variant is aside from it being the re-release later version is most of the third party games tend to use the Bug-Byte version and it was felt this variant which is just as good (if not better?) should get an occasional airing too!

We always welcome any comments, good / bad or otherwise. You can visit us at the community: jswmm.co.uk or email about any of the releases via projects@jswmm.co.uk


Kindest regards,

Andy Ford,

JSWMM.co.uk team , July 2019